The Best of Friends
by Bluebird372
Summary: Baxter has finally asked Tassie out, but after a month of going out, something doesn't feel right. When Bax realizes that his friendship with Emma could be effecting his relationship w/ Tassie, he must make a choice.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: How I Feel About You**

_One month ago..._

"So, the Baxman's making his move today?" asked Emma, as she smiled up at her best friend.

"Youu know it!," Baxter swaggered across the hall as Emma laughed at his failed attempt to appear cool. "The blood-curdling month of 'Massie' is over. After today, Tassie's all mine!" he declared, with a content smile. Baxter had decided that it was now or never. He couldn't let any other guy take Tassie away from him again.

"Oh, so she's a possession now?" Emma asked teasingly.

"Well, what I meant wa-, what I mean is-" Baxter stammered, as Emma interrupted, "Yep. I win again."

"I didn't know that was a contest!"

"All's fair in love and war, McNa-," Emma started, but stopped as she noticed Tassie coming their way. "Speaking of love..." Emma gestured towards Tassie nudgingly. Baxter swallowed nervously and tried to turn away, but Emma would not let him let this chance go. "Go on Baxman! Go get her!"

After a rather strong push from Emma, Baxter almost collided into Tassie. "Hey Tassie! How are you?"

"Hey Baxter! I'm doing much better. I've had a lot of time to think this week, and I'm going to try to not cry in the bathroom today," Tassie said, trying to sound happier than she felt.

Baxter was upset that she could potentially still have feelings for Marcus, but he told himself to stay strong.

"Tassie," Baxter took a deep breath. "Tassie, I have to tell you something."

Tassie continued to cram her books into her locker. "What is it?" she asked, her eyes meeting Baxter's.

Those beautiful brown eyes. Her blond hair gently framing her heart-shaped face. _Focus_, Baxter, he reminded himself. "Look, I know it hasn't bee long since you broke up with Marcus, but Tassie..." _Is this the right time? What would she say? Would they ever be able to friends again if she says no?_ He finally decided to block out all these questions and face his fears head-on. "I like you Tassie."

Tassie looked confused, but Baxter could see a slight smile on her face. "Wh-what?"

Baxter took another deep breath. _C'mon, Bax, the hardest part is over._ "I've always liked you. From the first day I saw you," he said, taking a hold of her gentle, fair hands.

Tassie gave a sheepish smile. "Baxter, I never knew. That's so..."

Baxter grimaced. What was she going to say next?

"...Sweet." Tassie's smile grew larger. Baxter breathed a sigh of relief.

"Then," Baxter began, with a new-found confidence, as he entwined his arm in hers. "Will milady accompany me to lunch this Saturday afternoon?"

"She will be much obliged, Baxter," she said, as she softly laughed.

... ... ... ... ... ...

**Chapter Two: Friend or Foe?**

_Present..._

Baxter looked around the cafeteria and spotted Emma and Jack. He walked up to them.

"M-hey fBaxterph!" Emma greeted Baxter, as she chomped on a turkey sandwich. "What's up?"

"Nothing." Baxter said, as he rested his head on the lunch table.

Emma and Jack gave each other a look. "What happened? A week ago you were on cloud nine," noted Jack.

Baxter looked up. "Yeah, a week ago. I have no idea what happened," he said, combing his fingers through his hair in frustration.

Emma sighed. "I'm guessing this is about Tassie?"

"Who else? I mean, I still think about her a lot, just not in the right way anymore."

"I thought you guys were doing great," said Jack innocently.

"Yeah, but for the past few weeks, Baxter has been a little _hesitant,"_ Emma informed, as she picked at her salad.

"No!" Baxter declared to himself. "I _want to be with her_. You want to be with her, Bax."

Emma and Jack tried to stifle their laughter at Baxter's conversation with himself. Baxter glared at them.

"Okay, look, where is she now?" Emma asked, hoping to ask him to have lunch with his girlfriend.

"She's not at school. She had a dance theatre audition today," Baxter said, staring down at the table. "I don't get it. I've wanted her so badly. And, now, it's just... I don't know. It doesn't...feel...right."

Confused, Jack asked, "Okay, when did this all start?"

"Umm, lemme see. It was our anniversary and I was going to hang out with Emma but had to cancel because Tassie wanted to go out for dinner."

"Oh, yeah, I remember that. 'Friday Night Movies'. We were gonna watch movies and pass out from too much junk food that night, after we got back at your little brother and sister for your crushed guitar." Emma and Baxter started laughing thinking about their last Friday movie night, and then started to plan their next one.

Jack started to realize something that neither Emma and Baxter did. "It's you."

"What?" asked Emma, as she chewed on some gummy worms.

"You're the reason Baxter and Tassie are having issues."

"WHAT! NO!" Baxter and Emma simultaneously cried, as they awkwardly began to turn away from each other.

"Okay, so you want to hang out with Emma on your and Tassie's anniversary, and you honestly don't know what's wrong with your relationship?" said Jack, flustered.

"I never said it was my anniversary with Tassie," said Baxter as he popped a french fry in his mouth nonchalantly.

Jack mentally face-palmed, as he anticipated Baxter's response. "Oh my god, Baxter. Don't tell me."

"It was Emma's and my anniversary. The day we met, at the jungle gym, when we were five."

Emma and Baxter smiled at each other, and then started talking about the details of that day, and how Baxter was covered in mud, and how Emma helped him clean off, but Jack was deeply disturbed by this display.

"STOP," Jack exclaimed. "What are you two doing?"

"Um, _talking_?" Emma said as she gently scoffed. "Can you believe this guy, Bax?" Baxter agreed, and continued eating his fries.

"You guys celebrate your own anniversary, you guys hang out almost every friday night, and then you say, 'Can you believe _this _guy'? You guys are never going to have a successful relationship with that kind of bond."

"Jack, seriously, Emma and I are like siblings. We like to hang out, and Tassie's always known that."

"But now, she's your girlfriend." Jack looked at both Emma and Baxter. "This..." He pointed at the both of them. "...Has to stop."

Emma was starting to feel uncomfortable. She had never in her life thought of Baxter as anything more than a friend, and now she was being accused of ruining the relationship that she helped foster.

"Baxter, if you agree with Jack, then maybe we _should_ stop hanging out for some time," Emma said quietly.

"No, Em, of course not." He turned to Jack. "I don't know what's gotten into you, man. Emma and I have been friends since we were five. We can never be attracted to each other. It's impossible."

"I was just trying to help you out, Baxter. The time you guys spend together is honestly something that people have started talking about, and I just thought that it's about time you knew," Jack said solemnly as he left the table.

Baxter realized how Tassie must have felt when he wanted to hang out with Emma that Friday night. "I should probably go call, um..." Baxter snapped his fingers as he desperately tried to remember his girlfriend's name.

"Tassie. Her name's Tassie, Baxter," Emma informed him, still feeling uncomfortable.

"Right." Baxter's cheeks flushed with embarassment. "I'll see you around, then?"

"Uh, yeah," replied Emma, as she managed to force a half-hearted smile.


	2. Chapter 2

As Emma walked home from school she thought about what Jack said. _Am I really too close to Baxter? _

_I would never want to take Baxter away from Tassie. I don't even like him that way!_ With that, she resolved to never hang out with Baxter again. No more "Friday Night Movies" or having dinner at each others' houses. She finally felt resolute and momentarily happy.

Once she reached home, she forced her keys into the keyhole and stepped inside her quaint, but sophisticated home. She looked around the house and all she could think of was... Baxter. _Oh great_. Emma looked at the living room and remembered the time Baxter had spent the night when they were 10 and her mom had made a tent for them to "camp out" in.

She walked slowly to her bedroom, the moments she spent with Baxter in the hallway still vivid in her memory. The swordfights, the tea parties (when Baxter lost a bet), and the time Baxter had gotten a "Detective Kit" and they tried to find out who stole her father's socks.

Emma softly laughed and made her way into her bedroom. She remembered the countless times Baxter had helped her with projects, and the moments when they would just goof around and talk about nonsense or what they saw themselves doing in the future. She helped Baxter through his parents' divorce. He helped her with her parents'.

Looking at the pictures of Baxter on the wall was really what did it. Soon, the tears came rolling down. She couldn't bear the thought of losing Baxter as a friend. She couldn't stop hanging out with him. Emma knew that it was strange to love someone so deeply when not attracted to them. She was friends with him. _Friends_. That's all. There was nothing more; there would _be_ nothing more. Then why did she feel so sad at the thought of losing him?

_That's it. I have to know. _Quite impulsively, Emma grabbed the phone and dialed Baxter's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey Bax, it's Emma-" "Oh, hey, Emma, I was just thinking about calling you. Wanna come over for din-"

"Baxter, no. I don't want to come over for dinner. I need to talk to you, though."

"Okay, Emma, are you in one of your weird moods again? Come on over. We can talk about it over spaghetti." Emma could feel Baxter's obnoxious smile penetrating through the phone.

"Bax, no. Just, um..." Emma tried to clear her head. What did she want to do? "Come over to my house, right now."

"Emma, are you alright? You know what, forget it, I'm on my way" Click. That was it. He was coming over.

_Why, Emma, why? What would you tell him? That you were thinking of ending your 10 year friendship with him and then decided you couldn't? _

10 minutes later...

Knock, knock. "Emma, are you in there? Open the door!"

Emma put down her diary. She slowly approached the door. Opening it, she saw Baxter, standing there with a box of her favorite chocolates. "I'm sorry I'm late.

This was the main reason," he said, holding up the chocolates.

Emma couldn't help but smile. "Thanks Baxter," she said and gave him a big hug. She found that she couldn't let go, afraid of actually telling him why she had called him here.

"Emma, what's wrong?" Baxter sensed his friend's unease. He had known her too long for her attempts at hiding what was bothering her to have any affect on him.

Emma pulled away. "Baxter, come in. Sit down."

"Where's your mom?"

"She had a business meeting in Vancouver. She'll be staying there for the whole week," Emma said, as she turned away from him.

"Is that what's bothering you?" Baxter asked, placing his hand on Emma's. "You know she'll be back and want to take you shopping as soon as possible!"

Emma pulled her hand away. "No, Bax, that's not what's bothering me." She looked right in his eyes. "It's us."

Baxter looked confused. "Is this about what Jack said? 'Cause Jack's a great guy, but he doesn't know us like we know each other."

"That's just it. I _have _been thinking about what Jack said, and maybe he's right. Maybe we should stop being hanging out."

"Emma," Baxter grabbed her arm as she tried to move away from the table where they were sitting. "What are you talking about? Our friendship is way older than my relationship with Tassie. I like Tassie a lot, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to give up our friendship just because you might think that it's causing problems for her."

"But maybe it is!" Emma cried. "Maybe it's time we just start seeing each other as a boy and a girl and not as siblings or best friends or anything like that."

"Emma..."

"Yeah, I mean, how long did we think this was gonna go on? Till you get married or-

"Emma-"

"Or when we have families of our own-" She was in hysterics, she was just saying whatever came into her mind as fast as she could.

"Emma!" Before she knew it, Baxter's lips were on her own. He was kissing her. It felt strange, much like the one in the musical, but also gentle, and slightly calming this time, but she knew she had to end it. She pushed him away.

"Baxter!" she wiped any sign of Baxter left on her. "What the hell are you doing?"

"See! Nothing! Just like our kiss in "Cinderella". _We_ know we don't have any attraction to each other and we don't need to prove that fact to anyone!"

Emma had never seen Baxter so full of emotion before. "Baxter, I know. But I can't do this. I'm a girl and you're a guy and until that changes our friendship will always be an obstacle to any relationships we will have in the future."

"Oh, Emma, I hate to see you cry like this. Look, Emma - just, don't do anything hasty. We're not even sure if our friendship is the reason Tassie and I are having problems. For all we know it -"

"Kiss me."

"What?"

"Baxter, kiss me again."

"Emma, I don't understand."

"Just do it."

Baxter was confused and a little nervous, but he obliged. After all, they weren't attracted to each other. Maybe Emma just wanted to feel a little more reassured about that. "O-Okay."

As Baxter began to lean in, Emma pulled him towards her, pressing her lips against his and giving him all the passion she could muster. All the affection she felt for him she tried to channel through this kiss. It was unlike the musical kiss, or the kiss that Baxter had forced upon her to prove to her that they were just friends. This was different. Nobody was forcing them to kiss, nobody was proving a point to another, neither of them were giving CPR. For the first time, _both_ of them were just kissing hoping that they would be unable to make this kiss the slightest bit enjoyable. Emma, for one, was no longer sure about that. She pulled away. Baxter's widened eyes told a similar story.

"Baxter?" A soft, innocent voice called out.

Both Baxter and Emma turned towards where the voice came from and saw Tassie standing in the doorway.

"Wh-what is this?" Tassie cried, as she turned around, running back to her car.

"Oh no..." Baxter grabbed his keys, and ran after Tassie. Emma sat there, at the dining table, feeling more confused than she'd ever felt in her life.


End file.
